Progressive metal trio Vangough released their brand new album "Warpaint" today (March 17th) and to celebrate we asked guitarist and vocalist Clay Withrow to tell us about the song "Morphine." Here is the story:
Our song story is for the song "Morphine" which I like to describe as the struggle between restraint and depravity. The lyrics were inspired by a specific incident involving a close friend of mine that ended up being very tragic and traumatic for all involved. Even with this narrative as the jumping off point for the lyrics, the song still manages to tie into the overarching theme of the album, which is that we all hide behind one pretense or another in an effort to make it to the end. And yet we often find ourselves at odds with our inherent nature, instead trying to exonerate our own lack of introspection. Unfortunately, many of us live our entire lives braced for impact or terrified that our deeply guarded insecurities will be the end of us. I'll just leave it at that.
We actually opened our set with this song on our North American tour with Fates Warning last year but it has gone through so many changes, such as the lyrics and even arrangement, that it definitely feels different. I think originally I just wanted to record a song in drop A tuning on this Mayones guitar that Daniel Gildenlow from Pain of Salvation let me borrow. Thank you for that by the way Daniel!
So that's the story of Morphine in a nutshell. If anyone is still reading this, firstly thank you because you don't know me but I like to think that I'm a fairly reasonable person when I'm out in public, though I'll admit that inside my own house I'm more of a domesticated lunatic.
Secondly, be sure to buy our new album Warpaint releasing almost everywhere today, March 17. You can buy it on our Bandcamp or places like iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. We really hope you dig it! Thank you so much.
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!
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